The past is never dead, it isn’t even past
Historical Heroes: Patrick Leigh Fermor There was a moment during Patrick Leigh Fermor’s daring operation to kidnap a German general and spirit him out of Crete that made me realise Paddy is my ‘Historical Hero.’ I read about it again recently in Artemis Cooper’s...
The Admiral’s Eyes The little pocket notebook is easily missed amongst the Nelson manuscripts in the British Library. In it the admiral noted every alteration of course, with the depth-sounding taken as the Victory came onto a fresh tack, leading the Mediterranean...
The Wedding to End All Weddings – 20 November 1947 Big puffy fairytale nuptials that establish a new royal name overnight - Diana, Fergie, Kate, Meghan - are now considered standard fare but a large celebrity-style wedding is a relatively recent confection. Pomp and...
Every work of fiction starts with a single idea. An assassin hired to kill a president (The Day Of The Jackal), an elderly fisherman who loses his prize to a shark (The Old Man And The Sea), a doctor who transforms into a beast at night and commits murder (Jekyll and...
What the Quiet American Teaches Us “I’m not involved… It had been an article of my creed,” Thomas Fowler boasts in The Quiet American, Graham Greene’s magnificent novel of Western embroilment in 1950s Vietnam. Not involved, Fowler insists, in the Indochina conflict;...
The House of Windsor in the Modern World It transpires that prior to her death, our late Queen had been ill for some time. Bone marrow cancer by all accounts. The end is rarely easy irrespective of privilege and position; even divine right and executive religious...
Natural Causes is Stephen Mills’ memoir about his life as a wildlife filmmaker, conservation journalist and author. Having made, and written, over forty films for television, Mills has experienced a variety of landscapes, studied and championed numerous species, and...
US Assassinations: The Security Failures The news that the Secret Service is under investigation by the Dept. of Homeland Security for lapses in security before, during and after the attempt on former President Trump’s life should not necessarily come as a surprise to...
Putin's War in Ukraine The area that we now know as Ukraine has rarely been an independent entity. We first hear of it as part of Kievan Rus, a state established by Vikings who went east and, centred on Kiev (now Kyiv), gave their name to Russia. Kievan Rus was...
On the day Britain declared war on Germany, 3 September 1939, Parliament immediately passed The National Service (Armed Forces) Act. All men aged between 18 and 41 were required to register for service. My grandfather John James Doherty ‘JJ’, a talented linguist,...
